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Cellphones

Walmart Will Give 740,000 Employees a Free Smartphone (cbsnews.com) 116

Posted by EditorDavid from the company-lines dept.
"Walmart will give 740,000 employees free Samsung smartphones by the end of the year," reports CBS News, "so they can use a new app to manage schedules, the company announced Thursday." The phone, the Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro, can also be used for personal use, and the company will provide free cases and protection plans. The phone's retail price is currently $499... Up until now, associates at Walmart stores used handheld devices they shared to communicate, but an initial test with employee smartphones was received well and will now be expanded upon, Walmart said...

The company promised that it would not have access to any employee's personal data and can "use the smartphone as their own personal device if they want, with all the features and privacy they're used to." The test will be expanded by the end of the year, Walmart said.

Earlier this year, Walmart announced pay increases for nearly a third of its U.S. workforce of 1.6 million. In February, digital and store workers saw their starting hourly rates increase from $13 to $19 depending on their location and market.
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Walmart Will Give 740,000 Employees a Free Smartphone More

Walmart Will Give 740,000 Employees a Free Smartphone

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  • Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06, 2021 @06:48PM (#61460698)
    Probably will be used to clock them in and out when they enter and exit the premises, and track their movements to ensure they are working and not lollygagging. Maybe even track bio info to adjust health insurance prices.

    If you think this is just a free gift done out of generosity, you're quite naive.
    • Walmart cares about money more than most companies. They wouldn't hand out phones if they didn't expect to make a profit from doing so. I expect poor people (Wallmart employees) will use the "free" phone as their primary phone, and I expect Wallmart has full administrator access to those phones.
      • That is contrary to what Walmart says, according to the summary.

        • If I was sticking electronic leashes on nearly a million people, that would be the last thing I would tell them

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by taustin ( 171655 )

          And no company has ever lied about such things, have they?

          • It would be pretty stupid to publicly lie about something that is so easy to check. These are standard phones with standard OS, so it is pretty trivial to review what the Walmart apps have access to.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by taustin ( 171655 )

              It would be pretty stupid to publicly lie about something that is so easy to check.

              It would be. And yet, large internet companies do so all the time, even when they get fined millions (or tens of millions, or hundreds of millions) of dollars for doing so.

    • But hey, at least this version isn't going to be implanted!

      I'm glad I'm not going to be job hunting 25 years from now. We're on the Willy Wonka boat ride and the other end is essentially Shadowrun.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chill ( 34294 )

        You just described an episode of Futurama. It's the one about the Slurm factory -- Wonka-themed boat ride, oompa loompas and all.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      If an employer wants to mandate something that requires equipment, they have to supply it. So if they are going with just in time scheduling they can supply a phone. What has to remembered is no matter what they say, if they are paying for the phone, they can use all data as they please.
      • No, they cannot "use all data as they please". There will be an agreement in place between Walmart and the employee, and that agreement is binding by Walmart. Unless Wamart is not telling the truth when they say "The company promised that it would not have access to any employee's personal data and can "use the smartphone as their own personal device if they want, with all the features and privacy they're used to." , they cannot use private data from the phones, only the specifics the employees have agreed

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by larwe ( 858929 )

          they cannot use private data from the phones, only the specifics the employees have agreed to.

          Yeah, but that is very, very weak protection; until the full legal language is disclosed, there are large potential holes. For example, they say "we will not have access to any employee's personal data". What do they classify as personal data? Anything entered into or collected - with the user's agreement - by the Walmart app will probably be regarded as Walmart's data, not the employee's personal data. If the employee permits the app to gather location data, for example - that becomes Walmart business data

          • A few years back the company that I worked for gave the executives iPhones as replacement for their beloved Blackberrys.

            All of the iPhones had a single cloud account that they were managed by.

            The director that held that account had to very discreetly inform the executives that every picture they were taking with the iPhones was being saved and could be reviewed from that one cloud account.

            It was handled discreetly and nothing was leaked or used against the executives, I doubt that Walmart would show such ki

          • with all the features and privacy they're used to.

            Aren't most of us used to a pretty low level of digital privacy?

        • My kids had phone accounts under mine, there was no indication on the account that they were minors or my children, but as the holder of the account I could see their phone logs and read messages.

          It is terrifically naïve to think that Walmart could not do the same

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Is that really the case in the US? I'm constantly surprised by just how weak data protection laws are there. In Europe just because they gave you the phone and you are an employee doesn't mean they get to spy on you as well.

        • Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Informative)

          by larwe ( 858929 ) on Monday June 07, 2021 @08:52AM (#61462146)
          It is a standard condition of employment in the US, with plenty of legal precedent, that there is no expectation of privacy when an employee uses a work-provided communications or IT system. (some interesting conflicts and consequences arise from this - for example, in states where it is illegal to record a telephone conversation without the consent of all parties, is it legal for a corporation to record telephone calls made from an employee to an outside number without pre-warning the external caller?)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fermion ( 181285 )
          Outside the US, if your employer gave you a car and paid insurance and petrol, how much privacy would be expected. If the insurance company based rates, as some do, on driving habits would the company not have the right to know exactly where you going and when to fulfill the fiduciary duty of minimizing costs? If you used unusual amounts of petrol, might they have the right to know why. It is the same with phone. It is not personal, and any privacy granted is discretionary. In my job that is why I use my

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            So in Europe if your job includes a car and fuel/insurance for personal use then you have an expectation of privacy. You may agree annual mileage but it would only be checked when returning the vehicle. Stuff like GPS tracking is right out. They could have some terms like "no taking it abroad" but would have no way of knowing if you did, unless something happened like an accident which their insurance was notified of.

            Basically they have to trust you and if you break that trust they can pursue you for compen

      • That is some idealistic work environment you live in.

        If you have to work at an office, the company will not provide you a car so you can get there.
        If they have to call you, they don't have to provide you a phone.
        If you work from home, they don't have to reimburse you for your heating and cooling, or your power usage....

        Benefits when provided by a company, are often carefully calculated out to be worth more if they offer it to their employees vs if they don't.

    • Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JoeCommodore ( 567479 ) <larry@portcommodore.com> on Sunday June 06, 2021 @11:49PM (#61461292) Homepage

      I hope to see down the road where Walmart is caught in some wage theft case and the worker's lawyers request for the phone telemetries to prove the worked hours (or schedule) were more than the reimbursed, then the managers get the hot seat and see how that pans out. Also other things could be found out like proving racial or gender bias from work history patterns, gaming employee hours to cut full time, etc. That part would be informative.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      > If you think this is just a free gift done out of generosity, you're quite naive.

      You are wrong. Walmart has nothing but the best intentions for employees at all times:

      https://news.wfsu.org/wfsu-loc... [wfsu.org]

      https://www.lifeinsurance.org/... [lifeinsurance.org]

      Of course snopes marks fails to mark this as true, so that pretty much proves it is.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by J-1000 ( 869558 )

      If this is true it won't be long before we find out. The home office doesn't have the bandwidth to care about individual performance. That'll be up to store managers who are going to be too blue-collar to keep something like that quiet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Exactly. Though at least Walmart is doing it by providing the equipment. They could just demand the user install the app on their own personal phones and use their own data and voice plan.

      It's not an act of generosity, it's just they're being actually proper about it - supplying the equipment to employees so employees can do their jobs. They can't demand everyone run the app on their own personal phone (it probably will be a logistical nightmare), plus there will be plenty of people with phones who can't ru

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by larwe ( 858929 )

        They can't demand everyone run the app on their own personal phone (it probably will be a logistical nightmare)

        Trust me, it's a security and policy nightmare allowing people to run their personal lives on a work-issued phone also. It's best for everyone's safety and sanity if you have a work device over here and a personal device over there, and never intermingle them. Which, as others have stated here, this Walmart initiative could in fact enable.

        Note that Walmart is also a MVNO on T-Mobile's network (I believe) so I would expect that their phones will be provisioned for this service.

    • If you think this is just a free gift done out of generosity, you're quite naive.

      Perhaps after they've passed out the free surveillance-and-quality-of-life devices, they'll give out free boxes to live in; that should also increase the supply of potential employees.

    • And people are not getting a vaccination because they are worried about getting a microscopic chip put into them. Yet the same people are probably toting around a cell phone with FB and a hundred other privacy violating apps installed on them.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by catprog ( 849688 )

        All you need to do is show the microchip will mean they don't need to carry around keys.

        It comes down to the perceived benefit vs perceived cost.

        Their is no benefit for a microchip to be inserted into me vs I get to keep in touch with my friends easily with the app on my phone.

    • Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday June 07, 2021 @09:38AM (#61462280)

      I expect it much simpler than that.

      If you are running a business, where there is a lot of turnover and people not being able to make it to shifts. Being able to contact people to see if they can come in and cover someone, as well get rid of the excuse that an employee doesn't have a phone, for a reason why they didn't call in saying they couldn't make it.

      Giving all employees a phone, just makes sure they don't have an excuse to not be contacted, where they could be saying my old phone keeps on dying, or I don't have a phone. Being that many employees are being paid the lower end of the pay scale, they may not have the money to keep their devices current and working.

      Back in the days I use to work for a Consulting Company. They paid me an extra $500 a month for auto expenses. I could keep the cash and do whatever I wanted with it, however bringing the excuse I couldn't make it to a customer site because my car is always breaking down, wouldn't go well, because the company paid me to keep my car is working order, and for the time at that amount, I could afford a Nice new car payments for that. It was still my car, not the companies car. However with that benefit, I had responsibility attached to it. I expect the same is with the Walmart phones.

      • TFA doesn't say anything about service, does it? Either the employee will pay for it themselves, or they'll be wifi-only. I suspect the latter.
    • Why would they bother unless they wanted to analytically grab all the data. I would be very iffy about using this phone for anything other then work.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 )

      This is lifted directly from an episode of Superstore:

      https://m.imdb.com/video/vi411... [imdb.com]

    • beware.
      of waltons bearing gifts

  • Sounds like a win (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jargonburn ( 1950578 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @06:54PM (#61460714)
    Nice little sound bite.

    Also, helps ensure that employees that receive them are reachable (may be an issue in some cases) when they wish to call someone in for coverage.

    Lastly, it's cheaper than paying a living wage that would allow the worker to purchase such things on their own!

  • Taxable? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Will this be considered a taxable benefit? And if so, who is on the hook to pay the taxes?

    • Will this be considered a taxable benefit? And if so, who is on the hook to pay the taxes?

      My (limited) understanding and experience with this sort of thing is that it's not taxable if offered to an entire class of employee. If they gave it to just you, then taxable; the entire department, not taxable. (IANAL, your mileage may vary, void where prohibited by law, one coupon per visit, offer may not be combined with other offers, etc...)

      • My limited understanding of the law says it's a work provided tool you need to do your job, so not taxable. Also a large tax writeoff for the company.

        • My limited understanding of the law says it's a work provided tool you need to do your job, so not taxable. Also a large tax write off for the company.

          That may be. I was basing my post on benefits received at a company I worked for. Some given to individuals were taxed, but similar ones given to the entire department were not. As Walmart's not providing the phones to all employees, the specific circumstances around this will probably determine if they're a taxable "benefit" or not.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by taustin ( 171655 )

          Whether it's still Walmart's property or the employee's property, it's still a tax write-off. That's not going to be relevant to whether or not it's a taxable benefit.

    • Will this be considered a taxable benefit? And if so, who is on the hook to pay the taxes?

      More than likely, yes. Unless Walmart says these are gifts, it's a taxable benefit. If so, the person pays the tax. Look at what happened to the people who got a free car from Oprah [forbes.com].

      • Oprah is not their employer and the car is not intended for business use. So a terrible equivalent to use to make any judgement on this case.

        • It's a reference that if it's not a gift, it's taxable. And especially if it's from an employer who can't really gift you anything [findlaw.com].

      • I've had a work cell phone for 20 years. 5 of those while a federal employee. I have never paid additional taxes due to the phone. Have you?

        Have you ever traveled for work and had the company reimburse you for food? Did you pay taxes on that?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      I suspect the key to that question is whether Walmart is providing a phone that is still owned by Walmart, or giving a phone to the employee that is owned by the employee. Do they have to turn it back in when they leave the company?

  • penny-pinching, not job-perk (Score:3)

    by NotEmmanuelGoldstein ( 6423622 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @07:03PM (#61460738)

    ... and protection plans.

    I wonder, will personal phones last longer and be cheaper than the " handheld devices" that Walmart currently uses? The protection plan means Walmart doesn't bear the cost of employees who can't properly maintain communication devices.

    At the moment, the needs of employer and employees align but corporate capitalism means a corporation will choose to abuse this, eg. 24-hour access to employees.

    • Walmart's been doing 24/7 access to employees for ages. I know a few Walmart employees and your schedule changes from one day to the next whenever they feel the need for you. After performance dips a little bit they slash your hours. They're not quite as bad as Uber but they're very very close.

    • will personal phones last longer and be cheaper than the " handheld devices" that Walmart currently uses?

      I think the "handheld devices" are MURS VHF radios. Walmart has a grandfathered, very rare license to use them with repeaters in their stores. The actual handsets are Motorola walkie talkies, which are reasonably cheap and durable.

      Perhaps the government offered them some money to relinquish their license.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by larwe ( 858929 )

      will personal phones last longer and be cheaper than the " handheld devices" that Walmart currently uses

      I got curious and went googling the model they're giving out. It is a semi-ruggedized entry-to-midrange level phone, something like a Galaxy J or A series phone with a built-in shock sleeve around it. I'm not sure why they said they are going to offer cases since the phone already essentially has one built in.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by taustin ( 171655 )

        I'm not sure why they said they are going to offer cases since the phone already essentially has one built in.

        Having worked in retail management for many, many years, and see how employees handle equipment they didn't have to pay for, I know exactly why.

  • Because injecting chips is unpopular (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @07:03PM (#61460740)

    I can't get you chipped, so here is a free addictive gift you'll be glued to and input more personal data than any chip could ever collect.

    • I can't get you chipped, ...

      Well, unless you get a COVID-19 vaccination ... :-)

    • Better than forcing me to use my personal device for work purposes, and I can leave the company-issued phone at work instead of taking it home.

      I'm okay with this move. I mean, things are supposed to work like this in the first place.

      • I'm okay with this move. I mean, things are supposed to work like this in the first place.

        Its always worked that way for me. At no point in my life have I been required to supply a work-related anything and at no point in my life will I tolerate an employer that expects otherwise.

        When my current employer went direct-deposit-only and digital-paystubs only, they found out that they still have to provide me with a printed paystub. See, they arent providing my internet access to me, so therefore they are not providing access to a paystub, a thing they are legally required to do federally and prob

        • You sound like a douche who will probably be the 1st on the chopping block when a round of layoffs come, or they find some other reason to get rid of you.

        • You're so brave making them print your "this is not a check" check.

          And are you on slashdot and saying you don't have access to the internet and a printer while at work?

  • No thank you (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @07:11PM (#61460772)
    It would be wise for Walmart employees to put that phone in a locker on premises before leaving. Having your corporate overlord knowing everything you do outside of work is creepy ... peeping Tom creepy. Wal-mart states they won't collect your data but we'll be reading a news story within two years finding out they did just that. "We're sorry for data that was collected. It was a configuration oversight on our part. We promise to do better moving forward." yadda, yadda, yadda.

  • will they get an cell plan as well? (Score:3)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @07:12PM (#61460776)

    will they get an cell plan as well?

  • The dual SIM model? (Score:3)

    by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @07:13PM (#61460778)

    Company issued phones generally means people carry around 2 devices.

    Dual SIM would mean employees could keep their existing number from their private lives and to purchase additional data.

    Otherwise, it looks like reasonable specs and one of the few phones left on the market with a removable battery (yay!)

  • Motives as pure as the driven snow (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HorseFaceFirst ( 7329056 ) on Sunday June 06, 2021 @07:28PM (#61460804)
    Walmart has put in place a biometric surveillance network that includes wifi beaconing and facial recognition. While Rite Aid made headlines, Walmart continues to share customers' biometric data with Facefirst, a company that “maintains a massive, centrally managed database” of American shoppers' facial geometry. Customers, without being made aware, are selectively targeted for enrollment in FaceFirst's "privately curated" watchlist, after which they can be stalked with "aggressive customer service" across thousands of locations, and targeted for defamation everywhere they go, including their employers.
  • I'm willing to bet Wal-Mart could have gotten a better deal on the phones if they provided their employees with Surface Duos. :-)

  • Not surprised... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pollux ( 102520 ) <speter AT tedata DOT net DOT eg> on Sunday June 06, 2021 @07:36PM (#61460814) Journal

    I was talking last week with someone who works customer service at a nearby Walmart. She told me that people are either leaving or moving up the chain, and it's hard to keep new employees retained. She had one who was in for three days, then just went AWOL and was never heard from again.

    I asked her what starting salary was. (The Walmart's in out-state MN.) She said $11.50.

    I guess Walmart can't help but behave this way. What they should be doing is raising salaries. Instead, they choose to offer a "perk" of a "free" phone w/ a "free" phone plan. I say "free", because no doubt the phone will be a data goldmine for corporate. How? Let me count the ways.

    1) Track employee movements within the store;
    2) Determine quantity and length of employee breaks;
    3) Track employee movements outside the store;
    4) Track employee searches;
    5) Track employee social media posts;
    6) Monitor employee spending behaviors;
    7) Mine employee messages;

    And so on, and so forth...And any one of these data mining operations can be used to punish employee misbehavior, hustle Walmart services (Moneygram springs to mind), not to mention sell to interested 3rd parties. (With Walmart commanding the largest fleet of employees in the United States, imagine how many other companies would be willing to pay for generalized data on employee behavior. Better yet, image how much someone would be willing to pay to advertise directly to 1.6 million people.)

    • Hmmm, lets see.

      For one, two and to a limited degree three Walmart already has cameras as the bulk of retail does. No phone required.
      Six depends if one's using their employee discount or not.
      The rest, that kind of behavior can also be seen on camera.
      For those using their employers WiFi the same applies.

      In short don't expect any kind of privacy beyond what the law allows .e.g. bathrooms, on their employers premise.

    • Hopefully they'll install an app that will help the employee file for food stamps and medicaid: https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      What they should be doing is raising salaries.

      A phone that lasts two years and costs $500 works out to the equivalent of a $0.24/hour raise, which wouldn't improve their employee retention rate at all (and could actually make it worse, since it'd be insultingly petty). Factor in the cost of the monthly account, and it's still a lot cheaper than enough of a raise to actually improve retention.

      And that's without factoring in any side benefits.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by WallyL ( 4154209 )
        With all due respect to both you and Walmart employees, what percentage of Walmart employees do you think will take the time and have the knowledge to make that calculation like you did?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by taustin ( 171655 )

          Given how many of them almost certainly have phones of their own already, I'd say nearly all.

  • Chances of the Walmart network being breached ramp up considerably.
    • I mean, you could probably just ask for credentials -- or physical access for that matter -- for nothing much more than a bag of weed, so...

  • I bet they'd take the cash equivalent and install whatever app may be needed on the phones they already have.

  • I don't know what it is that they have in mind, but I have a feeling that their promise isn't worth the paper they wrote it on, and that they've simply secured some mechanism that has plausible deniability.
  • Extensive "telemetry" / tracking, ads, more tracking, nag screens and messages, and more tracking, which is reactivated after you disable it.

  • That's normal (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday June 07, 2021 @06:25AM (#61461838)

    Originally they wanted to just insert chips into employees but with the current chip-shortage, that's impossible.

  • They're going to fight over who gets to use it.

  • Walmart unwittingly allowed 740,000 hack points into their corporate computer systems.

  • I wonder if employees can say "no" to this. If your job is to stock shelves, check people out, collect shopping carts in the parking lot, etc; do you really need a workplace provided cell phone?

    And as far as privacy goes, I'm sure there are exceptions to that policy. If an employee is fired, I suspect they want the phone back. If an employee is suspected of harassing other employees via their free phone, I suspect they want to analyze both phones. If an employee is suspected of any offense, I suspect they m

  • So, give them phones so they can manage their schedules?

    Why are their schedules so complicated that they would need an app to keep track?

    Oh, that's right, Walmart hates for people to have full-time jobs, where they have regular schedules... and benefits. They far prefer people they can fuck around with, working part time, no benefits (well, except for Walmart helping them apply for food stamps and welfare)....

  • When it get lost or broken who pays, as it sounds like this is required to perform their job.

  • Or, you could just pay them a living wage and they could buy it themselves.

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